Claims
- 1. A distributed receiver system for communicating transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals, the distributed receiver system comprising:
a receiver front end downconverter comprising a correlator for producing ultra wideband pulses from the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals; a digitizer connected to the receiver front end downconverter for receiving and digitizing the ultra wideband pulses; a high bandwidth cable connected to the digitizer for receiving the digitized ultra wideband pulses; and a centralized digital processing module connected to the high bandwidth cable for interpreting the digitized ultra wideband pulses.
- 2. The distributed receiver system of claim 1 further comprising an antenna connected to the receiver front end downconverter for receiving the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals.
- 3. The distributed receiver system of claim 2 wherein the antenna is configured to be positioned between a ceiling and a drop ceiling.
- 4. The distributed receiver system of claim 2 wherein the receiver front end downconverter further comprises a preamplifier connected to the antenna and the correlator for amplifying the received transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals.
- 5. The distributed receiver system of claim 4 wherein the correlator comprises a delay element connected to the preamplifier for delaying the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals and a mixing element connected to the preamplifier and the delay element for mixing the delayed transmitted reference ultra wideband communication signals with the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals.
- 6. The distributed receiver system of claim 5 wherein the receiver front end downconverter further comprises filter for filtering the correlated ultra wideband communications signals.
- 7. The distributed receiver system of claim 1 further comprising a modem connected between the digitizer and the high bandwidth cable for supplying the digitized ultra wideband pulses to the high bandwidth cable.
- 8. The distributed receiver system of claim 7 wherein the digitizer further comprises:
an analog to digital device for digitally converting the ultra wideband pulses; and a clock connected to the analog to digital device and the modem for synchronizing operations on the ultra wideband pulses.
- 9. The distributed receiver system of claim 8 wherein the analog to digital device further comprises:
a sampler connected to the receiver front end downconverter and the clock for sampling the ultra wideband pulses; a quantizer connected to the sampler and the clock for quantizing the samples of the ultra wideband pulses into a predetermined number of quantizer levels; and an encoder connected to the quantizer and the clock for encoding the quantized samples of the ultra wideband pulses.
- 10. The distributed receiver system of claim 1 wherein the high bandwidth cable comprises a fiber optic cable.
- 11. The distributed receiver system of claim 1 wherein the high bandwidth cable comprises a coaxial conductor cable.
- 12. The distributed receiver system of claim 1 wherein the centralized digital processing module comprises a plurality of decoder machines.
- 13. The distributed receiver system of claim 12 wherein each of the plurality of decoder machines comprises a field programmable gate array.
- 14. A distributed receiver system for communicating transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals, the distributed receiver system comprising:
a receiver front end downconverter comprising a correlator for producing ultra wideband pulses from the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals; a plurality of digitizers connected to the receiver front end downconverter for receiving and digitizing the ultra wideband pulses, each of said plurality of digitizers comprising:
an analog to digital device connected to the receiver front end downconverter for digitally converting the ultra wideband pulses; and a clock connected to the analog to digital device for synchronizing operations on the ultra wideband pulses; a modem connected to each of the plurality of digitizers and the clock for communicating the digitized ultra wideband pulses; a high bandwidth cable connected to the modem for receiving the digitized ultra wideband pulses; and a centralized digital processing module connected to the high bandwidth cable for interpreting the digitized ultra wideband pulses.
- 15. The distributed receiver system of claim 14 further comprising an antenna connected to the receiver front end downconverter for receiving the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals.
- 16. The distributed receiver system of claim 15 wherein said antenna is configured to be positioned between a ceiling and a drop ceiling.
- 17. The distributed receiver system of claim 14 wherein the analog to digital device further comprises:
a sampler connected to the receiver front end downconverter and the clock for sampling the ultra wideband pulses; a quantizer connected to the sampler and the clock for quantizing the samples of the ultra wideband pulses into a predetermined number of quantizer levels; and an encoder connected to the quantizer and the clock for encoding the quantized samples of the ultra wideband pulses.
- 18. The distributed receiver system of claim 14 wherein the high bandwidth cable comprises a fiber optic cable.
- 19. The distributed receiver system of claim 14 wherein the high bandwidth cable comprises a coaxial conductor cable.
- 20. The distributed receiver system of claim 14 wherein the centralized digital processing module comprises a plurality of decoder machines.
- 21. The distributed receiver system of claim 20 wherein each of the plurality of decoder machines comprises a field programmable gate array.
- 22. A method for receiving and demodulating spread spectrum signals, the method comprising the steps of:
sensing spread spectrum signals; downconverting the sensed spread spectrum signals; sampling the downconverted sensed spread spectrum signals; quantizing the sampled spread spectrum signals; encoding the quantized spread spectrum signals; providing the encoded spread spectrum signals to a centralized digital processor; and processing the transported spread spectrum signals to determine information content contained in the spread spectrum signals.
- 23. The method of claim 22 wherein the spread spectrum signals comprise ultra wideband communications signals.
- 24. The method of claims 23 wherein the ultra wideband communications signals comprise transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals.
- 25. A method for receiving and demodulating transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals transmitted from at least one ultra wideband transmitter, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals using an antenna; downconverting the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals into ultra wideband pulses; sampling the ultra wideband pulses; quantizing the ultra wideband pulses into a predetermined number of quantizer levels; encoding the ultra wideband pulses; providing the ultra wideband pulses to a centralized digital processor; processing the ultra wideband pulses using a logic tree to determine information content contained in the transmitted reference ultra wideband communications signals; and identifying a particular one of said at least one ultra wideband transmitter from the step of processing.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
[0001] The U.S. Government may have certain rights in this invention pursuant to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Contract Number 70ANB0H3035 awarded by NIST.